The proposed new Buildings Safety Bill, presented to Parliament in July 2020, has several changes intended to reform the regulatory system of building safety. For any building considered to be high-risk, this includes the preparation of a safety case.
The safety case forms part of the golden thread of information. It is a collection of documents that prove that the original fire safety intentions for the building have been met and that the building is being managed and maintained correctly.
Preparing a Safety Case
The process of creating a safety case will probably highlight that not all documents are up-to-date or that not everything within them is relevant. The first step in creating your safety case, therefore, is to do a literature survey.
This will show you what information is already available and where it is, as well as where there are gaps. From this, you can put together a plan for updating or creating the information needed.
Next, get a full understanding of the safety of the building by completing a fire strategy review. This should include:
1. Prevention methods within the building.
3. The means of escape throughout the building.
4. How the fire can be compartmentalised.
5. Means of putting the fire out.
6. How damage can be mitigated.
These then form the basis of the safety case which can be handed over to the building managers as part of the Golden Thread of information.
2. How fires can be detected, and the alarm raised.
The challenges of the Safety Case
As well as the new Building Safety Bill, the Fire Safety Act was passed in April 2021. One impact of that was that the need for a fire certificate has been removed. This raises questions about how essential documents such as the safety case can be made available. It may be that we’ll need to go back to digital access for documents. The concept of the golden thread of information was the facilitation of seamless information transfers within the industry. The requirements of the safety case and ensuring transparency of these documents will be critical in the future.
The biggest challenge, however, is the sheer scale of the issue of high-risk buildings. With the introduction of the safety case the ability to identify gaps in data and see them addressed is significant. With digitised documents, it may be possible to use technology to find gaps, but this is not a perfect solution.
Through the golden thread of information, the way in which the construction industry stores and passes on essential information will be standardised and regulated. The Fire and Emergency File (FEF) under the golden thread will hold all the relevant fire safety information right from the initial design and construction stages and will be maintained throughout the lifecycle of the building. The FEF would be essential to the collection of critical fire safety information for the building.
“…buildings are going to have to be much better managed in the future.”
Safety and the external envelope
The external envelope is now a part of the safety assessment process via the new PAS 9980 (still in consultation as we write this). This brings up a conflict between the desire to make buildings more thermally efficient and the use of fire-safe timber as indicated via MMC. Balancing these risks and challenges is something we must all come to terms with.
An interesting subset of this issue is the state of balconies. Occupants have a duty of care within the building and if their balcony is mismanaged (e.g. if they use it for barbecues) or is packed with inappropriate furniture, this will have a material impact on building safety. How we monitor resident behaviour has always been in debate – with the rights of privacy, landlord responsibilities and requirements for insurance all presenting an issue for residents.
The golden thread of information will make it easier to audit information, but buildings are going to have to be much better managed in the future.
“Occupants have a duty of care within the building and if their balcony is mismanaged … this will have a material impact on building safety.”